IDC is predicting that worldwide spending on telecommunications and pay TV services will reach nearly $1.6 trillion in 2020, a decrease of 0.8% compared to 2019, indicating only a limited impact from the COVID-19 pandemic. IDC expects the decline to continue in 2021, but at a somewhat lower degree.
Some highlights from IDC:
- The mobile segment, the largest segment of the market, will post a slight decline in 2020 due to lower revenues from roaming charges, less mobile data overages due to the stay-at-home situation, and slower net additions, especially in the consumer segment.
- Fixed data services spending will increase by 2.9% in 2020 as the need for more fixed Internet connectivity determined by the "great lockdown" is likely to help this segment maintain growth.
- Spending on fixed voice services will continue to decline and will take an additional hit due to the pandemic as users will likely drop fixed voice services for savings purposes.
- Fixed IP voice will survive longer as the service is included in bundles in most cases.
- Pay TV services will be boosted by the lockdown, but also affected by the economic downturn, so the spending in this category is expected to decline slightly.
- In 2020, telecom services spending will drop in all geographic regions.
- The largest market, the Americas, will see a tiny decline of 0.04%. Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) and Asia/Pacific (including Japan) will dip more primarily because of the larger price-sensitive audience in the low-income countries of Africa and Asia.
- Growth is not expected in EMEA or Asia/Pacific before 2022 as the users in emerging markets are expected to remain cautious about spending for some time.
